The takeover on Midland Metro of the CAF built Urbos 3 trams is continuing with this week seeing either five or six of the vehicles in service with Monday 22nd September seeing more than 50% of the service in the hands of the new trams. In addition 30 has become the latest of the trams to arrive at the depot, arriving at 2100 on Monday 22nd September.
30 made the familiar journey from Zaragoza in Spain in two sections before arriving at Wednesbury at 2100 on Monday. The crews then spent the night in their trucks before the tram was unloaded by 1000 on Tuesday 23rd September. It was then reconnected before being moved into the workshops by the Unimog where full reconnection will be undertaken ahead of commissioning and then test running before it can be considered for an entry into service.
Meanwhile this week has seen a step up of the number of Urbos 3s in service and on Monday 22nd September there were more of the new trams out than T69s (it has been said there were seven out although it is thought that 19 was taken out of service early on in the day and for most of the day only five were noted in use). This was followed up on Tuesday 23rd September with five Urbos 3s in service (18, 20, 21, 23 and 24) whilst 19 ran a test run and 17 and 25 were used on alternate short test runs from the depot to the bridge just short of the stop at Wednesbury Parkway.
The latest Urbos 3 to arrive in Birmingham, 30, is shunted at the depot whilst being moved to the workshops for commissioning.
16 passes with a service to Priestfield during 30's shunting.
A T69 sandwich at Wednesbury Parkway with 12 in between 23 and 19 on 23rd September. (All Photos: Andy Walters)
Nice looking trams. Hope they are more successful than the T69s.
Is it just me but does the paint scheme on the Urbus3 look like they have put a smiley face on the front end!
edinburgh trams look like there trams are smiling as well
I spent this afternoon on the line and found 4 out of the 10 cars running the service were CAFs, the sequence around 1pm being 11-24-16-10-05-18-12-23-08-20, with 27 doing a test run during the afternoon. So all three livery variants of the first series cars were represented.
I found the new cars to be impressive and a great improvement on the Italian cars. I imagine the conductors in particular must find them so much easier to work.
There are plenty of comments about the hard seating & non working aircon .. They do get a bit sweaty with a crowd on board, 208 bodies mean its cozy .. Also 25 was in service on Friday morning , it was showing 1180 KLM on its counter ..
Monday 6th October – Tram 26 out on complete circuit returning to the depot at 12.50. Still has protective cover on floor and seats.